Fair Winds on the Ocean Blue
by darkvioletwaters
Summary: PirateAu. Vriska is a ruthless pirate under the name Spinneret Mindfang, after her ancestor's chosen name, and rules the sea with a thirst for treasure, and a supposedly legendary stone is rumoured to be in the care of the new Heir to the Skaian throne. It's the cure to all her worries. Her only problem? The dork of an Heir she has to deal with. JohnVris (Language&violence)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **I decided my hand at some homestuck fanfiction! With a little push from WhovianNightFury13, who requested me to do a JohnVris fanfiction, here it is!

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She was known for flare while on-the-job. And that's exactly what she would show this time around as she narrowed her eye at the fleeing bow of the royal galleon.

Hat and overcoat waving in the wind, Vriska yelled out."Open up every damn sail we have! My ship isn't known to be the fastest in the sea for nothing! Now get moving you grubfuckers!" She barked her orders against the wind to her crew. The low blooded crewmates scurried across the maindeck like a cluster of confused insects. With the help of her mind control, she wrangled the deck hands into action.

Her left shoulder ached, as it does when she went after ships as intimidating as this galleon. Her nerves were flame with nervousness and adrenaline as they always were when she did her raids, but her cool and collected exterior did not show any sign.

She fingered the Fluorite Octet in her overcoat pocket. In a regular raid, she would have no hesitation in rolling the dice and watching whatever fate came to the target. But this task was far too important for her to risk completely destroying the galleon. On that ship lay the key to everything she wanted. Or, in theory at least.

Said ship was owned by the Heir to the Skaian throne. But it wasn't the Heir she was interested in. It was something more valuable than the Heir to the throne. It was something he came to bear. A stone more precious than rubies or diamonds or sapphires. However, there was just one problem. It is rumoured to not even exist. But if it did, there was no doubt it was located on that ship.

"We want to disable this ship! I want to take this ship and board it! You got that, you group of wriggling cuddlefish!" Several trolls ran under the deck onto the gun deck, preparing the cannons, and the rest grabbed their weapons and waited by the side closest to their target. As her own ship slowly pulled parallel to the galleon, she glanced once at the gold letters on the side of the sky blue hull. _The Beta _it was called.

_A ship like that named for a measly goldfish?_ A little confused at the odd name, she shrugged it off and focused on more important things, such as the opening gunports along the side of it. Despite the intimidating number of cannons pointed at her, she smirked. Even though they had more cannons, hers were more powerful. Within seconds of pulling up, neck-and-neck with the neighbouring ship, she called her order.

Her ship rocked with the blast of cannon fire from her own guns and the shells of her foe's. Splinters of lacquered wood were sent into the ocean from both ships as they were each wrought with holes. She, however, did not budge from her position next to the wheel, used to the rocking and shudders of her ship under fire. She took a glance as a couple of her crew went over board into the dark, shrapnel filled water. If they had any sense they would climb back onto the ship on their own, she didn't worry about them.

A moment of silence passed from the royal ship as they had to reload their cannons, but that gave her a chance to decapitate it. Without a moment to loose, her triple cannons fired their second shots. The mainmast of the galleon was splintered by her cannon fire, and the mast slowly leaned to the front of the galleon, taking down the foremast as it collapsed. The sound of wood cracking and the yells of the royal crew filling the air.

Drawing her sword, she deemed this the perfect time to move in. As her ship pulled in close to the incapacitated blue vessel, she pointed her deep blue blade at her target, and leading her crew in a loud roar, swung onto the broken ship.

As her feet touched the cracked deck of the enemy ship, she was instantly locked in a fight with a burly looking man. He was strong, but slow. After parrying him several times, backing him up against the fallen mainmast, she got the upper hand and sliced into his side. She left him slumped and bleeding on the deck as she weaved through the chaos of weapons clashing on weapons. It was surprisingly not difficult to reach the doors to the captain's cabin. It was a little odd it was that easy, but she didn't dwell on it as she slipped inside.

It was bright inside the cabin. Light streamed in from a skylight, as well as the expansive window located on the far wall. Rich materials made up the interior design; silks, velvets, and leather as well as a burgundy coloured wood. What caught her eye, however, was the figure of a person sitting in an overly fluffy chair. Flashing a toothy smile, she pointed her sword at the figure. "I am taking you and this ship. If you even think about resisting, I won't hesitate to cut off your arms to make this easier for all of us."

The silhouette turned slowly to face her. Now in the light, she could see him properly. He was wearing various shades of blue, from pale sky, to deep ocean. His long tailed waistcoat and dress pants were accented with gold and white. A deep blue cowl rested on his shoulders and trailed down to the back of his knees. He had an air of dignity as he stood from his chair. "I expected you would come to-" As he took a step forward, his left leg failed to make it into his stride, the laces of his tall officers boots caught under his right foot, and he fell forward onto the floor.

He continued to lay there. Narrowing her eye, Vriska looked at him confusedly. _Is he some kind of idiot or something?_

Groaning, either in embarrassment or pain - _Maybe a little bit of both? _- he raised himself up on his elbows. "So much for trying to look cool I guess." He mumbled out, looking up at the still confused pirate with her sword pointed at him.

"Are you seriously the Heir?" She was having a hard time believing this clumsy human was Heir to the throne of Skaia.

He was silent a moment, obviously taking her in and thinking. "Would you let us go if I said I wasn't, Ms. Pirate?"

"My name is not Ms. Pirate." She growled out. "I'm surprised you haven't heard of me, _Heir._ My name is Spinneret Mindfang." _Pirate code name, anyway..._

"So that's your real name?"

"Yes." _No._

"That's literally what your mom calls you? Spinneret Mindfang?"

"We're kinda getting off topic here, Heir." She snidely answered.

"I have a name too you know, and it's not Heir. It's John Egbert." He brushed off his blue uniform and readjusted the glasses resting on his face. He smiled before offering a hand forward.

This gesture was unknown to her, and her eye flickered between his hand and his face, but her sword did not waver. Not until the door behind her blasted open.

"Sir John, the pirates-" The newcomer froze, and Vriska whipped around to see who exactly it was who was interrupting her. In the time it took for her to raise her weapon again, the stubby horned troll pulled a scythe and pistol from his waistband. In another second, Vriska pulled the eight dice which had rested in her pocket and held them out.

"Don't even think about shooting me, stubby." Vriska narrowed her eye at the raggedy-looking troll. He was wearing a simple grey and black uniform. But based on the intricate design of his uniform, he was not an ordinary crew member.

"Why shouldn't I?" He also narrowed his eyes at her. His gaze flicked up and down, sizing her up.

"Because if you do, I drop these dice. You may not know, but these dice are actually a weapon. When they are rolled, based on the numbers they roll on, this ship could either safely sail away, or everyone in a couple mile radius could perish in fire." To make her emphasis, she held the dice open in her palm, out for him to see.

"You're bluffing. Sir, she's bluffing." Vriska took a quick glance over at John, who was clearly nervous, sweat beads glistened in the light along his hairline.

"Would I be? If stubby decided to shoot me, I would have nothing to lose if I dropped these dice and you all were destroyed. The chances are already stacked against your favour. Perhaps you're lucky." She glared back at the grey soldier. "Perhaps you aren't."

"That's not fair at all." John took another step towards her as he said that, but she turned her sword point back to him.

She let out a single laugh. "Pirate."

After a few tense seconds passed, John visibly slumped. "Karkat, stand down. We can't win this one."

"But Sir-"

"I will not risk the safety of everyone on this ship. Now stand down." _Karkat_ didn't obey right away, but he obliged John's command and dropped the pistol and scythe to the floor.

"Smart move, Glasses." Vriska too put the Fluorite Octet back into her pocket, but she kept her sword out as she herded her two captives out onto the deck with the rest of the subdued crew.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** wow that was embarrassing. Sorry about that weird coding stuff in the chapter! I did not expect that to happen at all. ;n; Well here's the chapter that was meant to be put up!

She pushed her two captives to their knees to match the rest of the crew. After securing their wrists with rope, she stood in front of the Heir, looking down at him. "Now I'm going to make this as simple as possible, and you're going to make this as simple as possible. Where is the stone?" She tapped her boot as his eyes flicked over to her patched eye, then back to her working one.

"What stone? There are a lot of stones on this ship. The majority of them located in the kitchen countertop." _Does he comprehend the situation he's in?_

Scowling, she pushed his back to the deck roughly with her boot. Drawing her sword, she embedded the blade into the wood next to his head. He looked up at her with a neutral expression.

"You will tell me where the Wind Stone is, or I'll have this ship destroyed along with everyone on board." Bending down, she leaned in to meet his eye level. He remained neutral, not giving anything away. Before she could lean back up and order her crew to start killing his crew, he spoke.

"It's not directly on this ship." Vriska scowled. "But, if I can give it to you, will you let the ship and crew go? You may take me hostage, just let them go." He, in turn, narrowed his eyes at her.

She raised an eyebrow. _You're pretty gutsy, aren't you, John?_ Turning on her heel, she approached her first mate. "What do you think of this, Terezi?" She murmured quietly to her technically-blind friend. "You're into all that 'fairness and justice' stuff."

Terezi turned her head to look at her, flashing a sharp-toothed grin. "Take the him and the first-mate hostage. Leave the rest to fend. If they make it they do, if not, they don't. Everyone wins, relatively speaking." Vriska patted her trusty mate's shoulder. Terezi has been with her through rough and rougher. Hell, she was even the one who disowned Vriska of her left arm and eye. She knew that she kinda deserved that, because she forced paralysis on Tavros. But she got even with Terezi and blinded her.

After all that they managed to get past all their past shit and make up. Now Terezi was her first mate. She trusted her and her judgements.

Leaving Terezi's side, she waltzed back over to where the Heir still lay on his back - legs still folded underneath him uncomfortably - and stood above him. "You and your first mate will come with us. We will spare your crew and ship."

From behind a part of the cowl, which had partially fallen onto his face when he was pushed back, his eyes lit up in relief.

After wrangling him back up onto his feet, he called for that stubby uniform she met earlier. First-mate Karkat. He clearly didn't attempt to hide his discontent towards her. What she thought was strange was that he didn't have any significant colour other than grey and the white and gold accents on his uniform. He was completely blood-anonymous. _I'll have to see if I can get him to spill on what blood colour he is._

"We got what we needed here, now get back to the ship!" Leading the two captives across the gangway and back onto familiar decks. "We leave _The Beta _unharmed. Set sail for Alternia!" Vriska's orders, enforced by the power of the mind control, had the crew running about and fixing up the ship to get back on the sea, while she led the Heir and the blood anonymous stubby horns beneath the deck.

The air quickly became musty and full of the scent of salt as they neared the holding. Vriska hardly ever led her own captives down to the brig, but because of the importance of her captives, and not wanting to risk having them make a fuss with her crew, she led them down there herself. Also wanting to keep a sense of honour of not having a lower-status crew member take down those of such high-status. But no one else had to know that.

She opened a cell door, one of the nicer of the cells which came with three cots, she cut their rope bonds and motioned for the two to go inside. They went in without hesitation.

"If you two are good little boys, you might just have a few minutes out of time-out." Closing the door, she left the two to themselves. She would send for a guard once she reached the deck, they couldn't get into any trouble in the few minutes she would be gone.

Reaching the deck, she stepped out into the blinding day, blinking several times to get her eye accustomed to the sudden light. As the world became clearer, she walked to the railing, watching _The Beta_ get smaller and smaller in the distance. _This is why the Ocean Octet is known as the fastest ship in all the seas. _In such a short time, _The Beta_'s sky blue hull became one with the sky itself, and disappeared on the horizon.

Smiling with a job -relatively- well done, she turned on her heel and made her way to the helm. The helmsman nodded their head respectfully to her as she approached. Standing by her side, Vriska took a glance at the compass in front of the helm. "Turn 10 degrees south. We're heading to the port of MAT. We need supplies before we can go after wherever the Heir hid the stone. I don't know where he'll take us."

"Yes, captain." The helmsman took a glance at the compass before she spun the wheel to the desired direction.

Vriska smiled into the wind as she looked into the distance. Nothing but calm open water in sight. She heard steps, and looked at the stairs to see her first mate approaching. Flashing a jagged-toothed grin, Terezi leaned on the railing. "Have you assigned a guard yet to watch the prisoners?"

"Not as of yet. I was actually just about to do so. Would you be a dear and do that?" Vriska pretended to swoon over the balcony next to Terezi, batting her eyelashes. Terezi, however, only looked at her with blind, red eyes.

"You're going to ask the blind girl to choose someone?" Her rough voice was filled with laughter.

"Yes."

"Again: I am blind." To emphasise that, Terezi waved a hand in front of her eyes.

"But I am also blind in my good eye and I only have one arm."

"Bullshit. You have a robot arm, and at least you have a functional eye."

Groaning, Vriska lifted herself off the railing. "Fine." She drawled out. "But you can still 'see' so don't tell me you can't." As she walked back down the stairs, she heard Terezi's giggles from behind her.

Approaching one of the crew, a particularly muscular troll, she called out. "You, there." The troll turned to her and immediately saluted. "Go watch the prisoners. Make sure they don't cause any trouble, not that I don't believe they would anyway."

"Right away, captain." And he took off.

Nodding at his departure, she took to looking at her robot arm, since the topic had been brought up. Looking at the aluminium and steel joints and parts and how they fluidly moved at her command. Equius did a great job. She wasn't sure how she would take to her commission, but the arm has worked out very well for her so far. The only problem is when a storm was brewing, when her severed joint ached with the metal on it.

As she looked out into the open water, she saw no clouds at all. She knew that the chance of a storm was low for quite some time, but with the sudden warm winds that picked up just after their leaving _The Beta_, there was one coming.

Turning back towards the captain's cabin door, she took one last glance out at the sky. The blue colours were slowly turing more pink and red, the sun only starting to begin it's transformation of the sky as it would slowly sink into the water.


	3. The Storm

**A/N:** So this is a relatively short waiting period: I've been on a college viewing trip the past couple days with my parents, and with the amount of driving we've been doing (8 hours today alone) I've been able to get some work done! Hope you enjoy the chapter based on John's point of view.

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The boat swayed violently to and fro with each wave that slammed the hull. However, sea sickness was one of the lesser things on John's mind. He's been at sea enough times to not be as susceptible to it. What really took up his thoughts was how the pirate ship he and his first mate Karkat were captive on was going to make it through the storm without sinking. By the ringing left in his ears after each crash of water, he had to guess that they had become victims of a hurricane.

A massive crash sent the ship leaning dramatically to the right, and this sent both himself and Karkat crashing to the floor out of the cots.

"What the absolute hell do they think they're doing, steering us into a fucking storm like this." Karkat was a tangle on the floor against the door of the cell; upside down on his back, his chin tucked to his chest and his knees located by his ears.

John knew something was up when he felt the mugginess earlier that day, before the siege happened. It was not only the humidity, but the winds felt different, even though it was a subtle change. It was like the feeling you get when you have a desk or a cabinet in a very specific order, but then one day there's something out of place, but you can't quite figure out exactly what is out of place. Or like when you've said a word too many times and it doesn't quite sound like a real word anymore.

"Hey, sailor!" John leapt up to the wall of the cell and held on tightly to the bars as he addressed the watchman. "You need to deliver a message to your captain! Tell her that she needs to pilot us to the storm's centre!" The guard did not move from his perch on a crate against the opposite cell. "Sailor!" John tried again, but the troll was yet again unresponsive.

"Damn it!" Banging his fist against the bar, he braced himself as yet another wave slammed the hull.

"Why the hell would you want to go to the centre of the storm? Is your thinkpan damaged or some shit? We want to get away from the storm, not head towards the roughest part!" Karkat stumbled to the bars next to John. His eyes were wild with terror of the storm and anger at being tossed about.

"No I'm not brain damaged. Trust me with this Kat, the centre is where we want to go! I know winds and storms." John glanced at Karkat, gripping the bars even tighter as the ship was tossed about again, the roar of the wind, rain, and water was equivalent to that of a train rushing past him. Even the cell bars vibrated with each impact.

The guard stood up suddenly, catching the attention of both prisoners. Wordlessly, he rushed down the hall and up a flight of stairs at the end. Seizing his chance, John unclipped his cowl and shed his light blue uniform jacket, leaving him in his white dress shirt. Taking a star pin off of his jacket, he kneeled down by the cell door, sticking his hands through the bars and started fiddling with the lock.

After a few moments, the click which should have been heard was drowned out by the roar of the storm, and the door swung open violently as the ship shuddered once again. Rushing out, John started down the hall.

"You pick locks? Since when the hell have you been able to do that?" Karkat stumbled out of the cell as John reached the stairs.

"I taught myself. You never know when you might need it!" John yelled back as he scaled the stairs two at a time. He almost missed the "where was it when we needed it like, four hours ago when we were put in here?".

Running around to the next set of stairs, he noticed a fair amount of water leaking through the stair hatch. Braving the slippery wood, he jumped up the stairs and burst through the door to the deck.

It was an organised chaos. That was one word to describe what was happening. The crew mates were slipping and sliding on the deck, trying to keep a hold of the ropes as the ropes themselves waved about in the wind like wild snakes. The rain pelted down in stinging sheets as the wind commanded it. With another rock, which sent John scrambling for a hold on the mainmast behind him, and a wave came crashing over the deck. In but a few seconds on being on the deck, he was already soaked to the bone, his black hair plastered on his face and his glasses making everything he saw a mosaic.

His glasses were of no help. Taking them off, he tucked them into his pocket and looked for the helm or the captain. Either would be fine. He located the helm, a blurry form on the higher deck, as well as the captain, another blurry form behind the first blurry form.

Cursing his near sightedness, he slipped and slided to the staircase leading to the helm, and gripped the railing tightly as he clambered on up.

He stumbled up to the pirate captain and placed a hand on her shoulder and his other hand on the wheel.

"Mindfang!" He yelled against the howling wind, "You have to turn to the centre of the storm!"

"Don't tell me what to do! And how the hell did you get out of the brig?" She turned and challenged him, her eye not breaking contact with his own.

"We're kinda getting off topic here." He hoped that she remembered that she said the exact same thing to him when she stormed his office on his ship. By the look of her narrowed eye, she remembered that, too. "If you want to get out of here with minimal casualties and the least amount of damage to your ship, I highly recommend that you take my aMdvice."

She pondered this for a moment as another huge wave rose and swept across the deck, sending all the trolls working on it sliding to the opposite side of the deck. "How do I know you're not just trying to sink my ship to try and escape?"

"You're just going to have to trust me!" locking eyes once again for several moments, Mindfang turned away and faced the deck.

"Which direction?" Her voice carried on the wind, and John almost missed it. For a few seconds, he looked at the clouds above them. Closing his eyes, he allowed the wind to pelt his skin. He felt the strength of the winds, and he slowed down his heart rate enough to slowly become in tune with the winds themselves. The tensions to his right was high, but as he slowly turned south, the static became more calm, until he paused in his search. Opening his eyes, he was faced almost 40 degrees more south then their current heading. That was the centre.

"That way!" He raised his finger, pointing towards the specified direction.

"Get the sails steady, or it's you who's going to be fed to the sharks!" Mindfang called out, and with a quick movement of her arm, sent the wheel spinning towards his direction.

The wind picked up even more, and the rain and waves left the deck no time to drain the amount of water collecting. The trolls working on the deck were tossed about, desperately holding down the ropes as the sails were tightened against the storm.

Another crash, and the ship leaned far to the left, sending John careening into Mindfang. He could feel her scramble to tighten her hold on the wheel as she righted herself. John, too, grabbed the wheel and held on for his life as the ship was sent rocking to the right by another rouge wave.

After what seemed to have been anywhere between several minutes to half an hour they remained like that. Trying desperately not to be thrown overboard by the force of the storm. Both of their hands were straining on the wood of the helm, leaning into each other to try and lessen the force of the jolting ship.

Then, like a curtain, the ship pierced through the veil of water and into dry air. It was silent for a moment, until a shout of relief and joy came from the crew on the main deck. Looking back, he and Mindfang both glanced at the torrential rain that came down like a wall behind them, and continued to recede as they sailed further away.

Sighing, he felt more than saw Mindfang kneel down on the soaked deck, pressing her forehead to the helm. "Let's not do that again." He had to lean in to hear her murmur.

He almost asked if she was okay or not, but she suddenly stood up, he barely had time to move his chin out of the way before it was skewered on her sharp horn.

"Get the sails open and dry in this sun while they can, you lusii fodder!" She barked her orders, and the crew went to open the rest of the sails on the ship. Turning to John, she narrowed her eyes. He knew that she clearly hadn't forgotten that he was out of the brig due to unknown reasons to her. "Now, exactly how did you say you let out of your cell?"

"The keys were thrown off the wall and had slid close enough to our cell for me to grab them." He clearly remembered that the keys hung on the wall as he passed them on his way up.

An eyebrow raised, but she said nothing more about it. By the air she had around her, he knew that she either a) knew he was lying, or b) still did not trust him. If he had to guess, it was probably both.

"Your guard will escort you and Stubby back down to the brig." The moment she said that, he heard Karkat exclaim "Get your hands off me, I can walk by myself thank you."

Turning, John saw his first mate walk up the stairs to their current deck, followed closely by the same brawny troll who had watched them in the brig.

As he was led with Karkat down the stairs, he turned to look fully at Mindfang, pulling his glasses out of his breast pocket and wiped them on his still soaking shirt. "Word of caution, we have to continue to stay in the eye of the storm. This is the only safe place until the hurricane dissipates. It won't be for another while, so unless you want to brace that storm again, I highly recommend staying in the limits of this ring of clouds." He gestured to the large ring of dark cloud which the ship was now inside. He turned back to her after his gesture, but he caught her eye too late, as it quickly flicked away from him and straight forward towards the horizon.

He took this gesture of recognition, so he turned away and headed back to the brig with Karkat, who grilled him on the stupidity of his actions and how he should put a shirt on because his wet, white one wasn't doing a 'damn of enough a good job at covering you'.


End file.
